The Alpine Garden

I never envisioned the difficulties in having an alpine garden. I am not an expert gardener but I have had an interest in gardening for as long as I can remember. I grew up on a prairie farm so I naturally like to think that I have learnt something of plant life through osmosis if nothing else, therefore alpine gardening should be a breeze.

My Alpine garden is located on Silver Star Mountain behind our town home "The Golden Sun". The patch of land is not large but large enough to have created a great deal of frustration for me, certainly not a breeze. The area off of our deck does not slope down, but rather up and after the first winter the snow melted and the mud started sliding. That first summer saw me carrying rocks and building a slate wall to hold back the earth.

All the mountain flowers were in bloom and color carpeted the mountain side except for my little patch of dirt. Flowering plants in the mountains are very fragile so you are not supposed to pick the flowers or transplant them. You could never dig enough soil out with them anyway because of the rock, but the dilemma remained. How was I to get these wonderful flowers growing in my alpine garden?

I hiked about the mountain and viewed beautiful Red Indian Paintbrush, Columbine, and Candytuft. There were many more, that I am still learning to identify. I have found "Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia" by Parish, Coupe, and Lloyd, to be a great guidebook. I decided that I would collect some seeds on my next visit to our town home and in the spring my garden would be blessed with an array of color.

Unfortunately work interferes with ones life and our next visit was not until October, and the weather was damp and chilly, but I was not daunted. I put on my hiking boots and took along a small bag to collect my seeds and off I went. Now obviously October is a little late in the season to be able to collect a large variety of seeds, because not all plants flower at the same time. Some of the spring and early summer flowering plants would have to wait another year.

I took the seeds home and decided that I would plant them in the morning. After hiking the mountain all afternoon I was chilled and the hot tub had great allure. The next day dawned with two inches of snow on the ground and more falling by the minute. Now I ask, how do you plant seeds in the snow? I decided to wait until the next morning, maybe the snow would melt, and I would have enough time before we had to leave for home on the coast. Needless to say the snow did not melt and I was out there trying to plant those seeds despite the snow, in order to have something growing next spring.

The winter flew by, the skiing was great and I waited to see what would grow once all the snow melted away. Spring finally arrived and an occasional seedling appeared, but it was obvious that my gardening attempt was a dismal failure and I would have to renew my efforts with far greater enthusiasm. All summer long whenever we could escape to the mountains I was out there hunting for seeds, and by the end of the summer I felt that I had collected the majority of the species that were available to me. After they were all planted I just had to enjoy the skiing and wait for my garden to grow after the snow.

Next spring I was so excited about getting to our mountain hide away. I was sure that I would have a good start to a great alpine garden. The first thing I did was run out on the deck to see what was growing. I had a lot of grass, a thistle or two, a few wild strawberries, and some lupines. That was pretty much it. I was oh so disappointed, but I am not easily discouraged. So on went the hiking boots and off I went to harvest more seeds.

I have been harvesting and planting seeds ever since, and very slowly my alpine garden is emerging. It is not yet the Alpine garden of my dreams but I will persevere, because I have decided that Alpine plants are truly very fragile and that conditions must be just right for germination and growth to happen. Each species has a different set of criteria, and for me it was just hit and miss, but with the help of the Backyard Gardner I am starting to hit more then miss.

The gardening continues slowly and in the summer of 2001 we added a cairn as a focal point.

Teresa likes to share her beautiful town home, so plan a summer vacation to Silver Star Mountain and Experience the Golden Sun with an alpine garden in the making. To provide helpful hints in alpine gardening e-mail info@thegoldensun.net

For anyone who is interested there is a Mountain Wildflower Tour. It is a fully-guided and informative nature tour from the Summit of Silver Star back to the village through alpine meadows. Learn about the wildlife and natural history of Silver Star Mountain.